Pete DeBoer will be back as Devils coach

NEWARK – Missing the playoffs the season after going to the Stanley Cup Finals will not cost Pete DeBoer his job.

DeBoer definitely will be back as coach of the Devils next season, general manager Lou Lamoriello said Monday.

"I'll put it to rest. The season is over now," Lamoriello said after the team gathered for its end-of-the-season picture. "I'm never going to answer one way or the other [during the season]. We're playing. But this coaching staff worked as hard as any coaching staff that I've had here."

The Devils finished 19-19-10 after DeBoer guided them to a Cup Finals berth in his first season behind their bench. The lockout-shortened season was unkind to the Devils after an 8-1-3 start, as they lost goaltender Martin Brodeur for 13 games because of a pinched nerve in his upper back/neck and star right wing Ilya Kovalchuk for 11 games with a right shoulder injury.

Despite their struggles down the stretch, which include losses in the first 10 games Kovalchuk missed (0-6-4), the Devils continued to play hard under DeBoer.

"That to me is the underlining factor of a lot of the things you do," Lamoriello said. "If there's a reason to do something and it's going to make us better, it doesn't matter who it is. This is not about liking people or not liking people. It's great when you have both, which certainly Pete is that type you like and respect. But it's about the bottom line and it's about evaluating."

Lamoriello mentioned the "coaching staff," but wouldn't commit to the entire staff returning next season.

TWO MORE YEARS? Brodeur, who will turn 41 in six days, has said repeatedly he will come back to play the last season on his two-year contract. That doesn't mean that next season will definitely be Brodeur's last, though.

"Not at all," the future Hall of Famer said. "It's the last year on my contract and that's about it. This year, even though we didn't make the playoffs, I had a great time playing the game. I really had a good time competing at the level I wanted to compete [at], and if it stays like that and I'm still having fun, who knows what's going to happen?"

PICKING NINTH: The Devils retained the ninth spot in this year's NHL Entry Draft – to be held June 30 at Prudential Center – after Colorado won Monday's lottery and the first overall pick. The Devils had a 2.7 chance of winning the No. 1 pick after finishing 22nd overall with 48 points.

Lamoriello confirmed the team will hold on to this year's first-round pick. By doing so, the Devils automatically will surrender next year's first-round pick to complete the penalty for Ilya Kovalchuk's rejected, 17-year, $102 million contract from 2010.

That contract was ruled to be a circumvention of the salary cap and the Devils were fined $3 million and forced to surrender their 2011 third-round draft pick and a first-round pick by 2014.